Swiss Bliss Day 12 (Part 2)

St Gallen on a Sunday is basically a dead town, almost all the shops are closed. Except for the restaurants, even those they serve at a much later hour. I like this concept of a weekend, where the shops take a rest. Back here in Malaysia, there is no such day, the weekends is the time when all the shops are open for work. Certain shops will take a rest day on one of the weekdays but mostly it’s all open, 18 hours a day, all days of the week. Seldom do we see such a curious thing of having nothing open on a particular day.

Shops are closed, let the good times roll.

We saw a procession of Volkswagen Beetles, the old type during our short stay at St Gallen. I guess that’s what the Swiss countryside is for. On a nice day like this, Sunday nonetheless, time to head to the hills!

Marktplatz

There was one entry on the WikiTravel page regarding St Gallen, and that is to try the famous St Gallen meal of OLMA Bratwurst, and someone suggested this restaurant. Lucky for us, reservations were not needed, we were the only ones there. And we’re pushing our luck. We never reserved any place to eat at all during our journey, although there were once or twice in which we were turned away, but mostly our food tasting luck persevered.

Try the OLMA Bratwurst in St Gallen

Come to Mama!

As ordered by the websites, we ordered an OLMA Bratwurst and some other dishes to try out. The OLMA Bratwurst is basically a veal sausage, served with rösti or with fries, both coming up to around CHF20 per dish. I guess it’s the veal that they use for the preparation. To my tastebuds, they tasted the same as the ones before.

OLMA Bratwurst

I’m guessing this is fish.

This is good too.

The ambiance of the place was a delight too. I was particularly drawn to the exposed brickworks next to their kitchen.

“Since when were you an architect or an interior designer?” muttered the wife.

“Just saying.”

Inside the Marktplatz

Rheinfall/Rhine Falls

I’ve been gushing about the Swiss Transport System since Day One and it’s already Day Twelve, and still I’m gushing about it. Now more so, today. We were supposed to get from St Gallen to Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall, the spectacular Rhine Falls, dubbed the biggest in all of Europe could be seen here. Unfortunately the train station was undergoing some repair works, so we had to disembark at Dachsen and take the bus there.

‘What?!”

“How do we know which buss?”

“What if we have to wait?”

“It’s a small place you know, how punctual are they?”

That came the chorus of replies I got when we stepped off the train in the middle of nowhere. Lo and behold, the bus to Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall was already waiting in front of the train station and within 15 minutes we were standing in line at the ticket lane to Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall.

Laufen am Rheinfall (CHF5 per entry)

The entry price gives you a tour of the Schloss (the castle), and a really close up view of the amazing Rhine Falls or in German-Swiss — Rheinfall. The castle tour is an interactive multimedia-filled show that gives you an idea of what to expect regarding the waterfall. Then you’re thrown outside, to brave the fury of nature.

Rainbow

You can pay some extra cash to get as close to the waterfall as possible, but judging from the crowds queuing up to be right in the middle of the action, I guess we better just stick to the sides.

Look at that. (click to enlarge)

You can walk across upstream.

“Where are the boats?”

Look at the boat! (click to enlarge)

“You were saying we could get close without taking the boat, where is it?”